Could Patrick Dangerfield be winging his way back to Adelaide? The Crows are reportedly set to target the veteran star for 2024 to help mentor their young squad in the final years of his career, according to 7 News. After spending the first eight years of his careers at the Crows, the 34-year-old midfielder has been an integral member of Geelong’s line-up since 2016, the year he won the Brownlow Medal, but only managed 18 matches last season as injuries started taking their toll. The 2022 premiership winner, who has racked up 325 games and eight All-Australian team selections, is a restricted ..read more

The AFL world can throw up some weird and not-so-wonderful storylines from time to time. The comments Sam Draper made about Luke Beveridge and the Western Bulldogs on his podcast a few weeks ago should be put in the ‘mountain out of a molehill’ category, if not outright as the most unnecessary AFL story of the year. In the tough and high-pressure environment of football where you are virtually in the spotlight 24/7, what is the problem in players having some harmless fun from time to time? Does everything need to be taken so seriously? Speaking on the Clubby Sports’ 200PLUS podcast, Draper mad ..read more

Could Patrick Dangerfield be winging his way back to Adelaide? The Crows are reportedly set to target the veteran star for 2024 to help mentor their young squad in the final years of his career, according to 7 News. After spending the first eight years of his careers at the Crows, the 34-year-old midfielder has been an integral member of Geelong’s line-up since 2016, the year he won the Brownlow Medal, but only managed 18 matches last season as injuries started taking their toll. The 2022 premiership winner, who has racked up 325 games and eight All-Australian team selections, is a restricted ..read more

Kane Cornes has slammed the Western Bulldogs and under-fire coach Luke Beveridge for their ‘continuous downplaying of expectations’, as pressure mounts on the club following a shock loss to Hawthorn. The Bulldogs sit 11th on the ladder with a 3-5 record after being stunned by the Hawks on Sunday afternoon, who recorded just their second win of the season by seven points. A long-time critic of Beveridge, Cornes took issue with his reaction to the horror loss, reiterating his belief that the coach is ‘wasting one of the AFL’s best lists’, saying the club’s bold off-season which saw them recruit ..read more

Round 8 is finally over – and with thrilling finishes, epic goals and some supremely gutsy performances, what a weekend it was! Collingwood continued their charge back into contention with a nail-biting win over archrivals Carlton, Brisbane took the first step towards doing the same with a supremely gutsy QClash win amid a spate of injuries; while Hawthorn proved they can’t be trifled with by dealing Luke Beveridge’s Bulldogs their latest hammer blow – and ensuring the Whitten Oval will once again be in the gun this week. It was also a big week for the AFL as a whole, with the league launching ..read more

Essendon coach Brad Scott says ruckman Sam Draper still has plenty of scope to express his personality and be funny – just not at the expense of an opposition coach. Draper earned the ire of Essendon and Western Bulldogs officials for his podcast comments in which he questioned the future of Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge  While imitating a journalist as part of a fun role play, Draper stated some Bulldogs players would request a trade at season’s end if Beveridge stays on as coach. Beveridge labelled the comments at bizarre, and Scott wasn’t happy either. More AFL Richmond Tigers vs Frem ..read more

When people say a home-and-away match is finals-like, they’re usually referring, at least in part, to its quality. That was far from the case on Saturday night at the MCG – for three quarters, Geelong and Melbourne slugged it out in greasy conditions that they made look far worse than they were, committing a range of errors both in disposal and decision-making that manifested in a run of 14 straight behinds in the second quarter and hardly improved. It’s actually not worth talking much about those first three quarters, ugly as they were, so distinct were they from the best the Demons and Cats ..read more

Sometimes after 120 minutes of blood, sweat, tears and momentum swings, our game makes it so that none of that really matters. With three minutes and 52 seconds on the clock at the MCG on Friday night, that was the ball game staring Carlton and Collingwood in the face. None of the Pies’ inside 50 dominance, or the Blues’ intercepting brilliance, mattered anymore. Scores were tied, the game was afoot, and four precious premiership points were about to be decided in the ultimate pressure cooker in front of 88,362 screaming fans. This the story of those three minutes and 52 seconds: the mistakes ..read more

Melbourne’s complete reliance on Clayton Oliver has them positioned as a fake contender and Oliver finding form will completely transform this accidental top-four team. Over the next two weeks, Melbourne plays a couple of genuine flag threats – the undefeated Geelong and a Carlton team that looks ominous, while being the most injury-riddled team in the comp. To date, the Demons haven’t been tested all that much. They lost to Sydney in the opening round, but that’s hardly a measuring stick sort of performance. If you classify the Power as a good team, then that was an important win for Melbourn ..read more

For somewhere between two and three and a half quarters, depending on how generous you want to be, Adelaide didn’t do a whole lot more than grimly cling by their fingernails to control of the Showdown as Port Adelaide threw everything, including the kitchen sink at them. Close Showdowns are far from a rarity, but games that feel close without being so on the scoreboard are far less common: even as the Crows extended their lead beyond five goals as the Power continued to butcher chance after chance, there was always the decided feeling that Port were only one explosive burst away from piling on ..read more